The 157th Hunger Games: Return to the Forest
by the.dreams.in.which.i'm.dying
Summary: "Tia, do you remember the last time a forest was used as the arena? 80 years ago? What happened then?" / an open SYOT
1. The Meeting

Head Gamemaker Tia Cameron's heels clicked on the checkered linoleum as she walked through through the dimly lit hallway of the Capitol's Justice Building. She had a meeting with the esteemed President Holiarch in five minutes to discuss the arena for this year's games, and she could not be late. Not for the president.

The linoleum phased into lush white carpeting as she walked through the arched entryway to the Meeting Room. The president was sitting in a plush chitz armchair by a window, staring down at the city below them. Tia stood as straight as she could and waited ten seconds before the president noticed her. "President Holiarch," Tia bowed her head slightly.

"Ah yes, Tia. Our meeting is today," President Holiarch nodded curtly. A strand of red hair fell from her carefully styled updo. She made no move to fix it, and it hung directly in front of her eyes, limp.

_Just like my job_ Tia thought miserably. She was lucky to be alive, after the fiasco of last year's games. Her brilliant idea of an abandoned amusement park had flopped, she and her fellow gamemakers had failed to address temperature, and fifteen tributes died from frostbite. "I have some sketches and ideas, if you don't mind."

A ghost of a smile appeared on the president's face. "Sit Tia, tell me what you have in mind."

Tia positioned herself in an armchair opposite her president. She fought the urge to sink into the comfortable fabric and sat as straight as her back would allow. "I was thinking that we take a break from complicated arenas, and go simple this year."

"Hmm?" President Holiarch finally swept her hair back. "And what do you mean by simple?"

Tia swallowed. This moment would make her or break her . "I was thinking we go with a traditional forest this year, Madam President."

"A forest?" President Holiarch looked Tia directly in the eye. "Tia, you are old enough to remember the stories of the last time a forest was used for the arena."

Tia gulped. This wasn't going very well. "Yes but-"

"What happened Tia? Refresh my memory," President Holiarch sank back into her chair, tapping her fingers on the plush arm. She looked positively murderous, and Tia realized this was a really terrible idea.

"That was the year of the Mockingjay, Katniss Everdeen. The year that sparked the rebellion." Tia bit her lip, looking up at the President, who said nothing. Tia continued. "However, that was over eighty years ago. Katniss Everdeen and the rest of the rebels are long dead, Madam President. A forest will confuse the tributes. They'll be expecting something elaborate. It will throw them off."

The President glared at her. "It could make them think that it is time for another rebellion."

"It could also show them that we're not afraid of them anymore. Show them that we never have been." Tia is surprised by the strength in her voice. Where had that come from? She started to apologize, but President Holiarch laughed.

"If you're so confident, Tia, go ahead with your forest. However," she stopped, and stared Tia down. Sharp green eyes met soft brown , "if you fail, you won't just lose your job."

Tia bit her lip and nodded. She knew what she had to do. "Thank you, President." she murmured, standing up to leave the room.

"Tia," the president called. Tia turned and faced her leader. "Don't let me down."

Tia smiled. "No need to fear, Madam President." she said, her voice cool and smooth. "This won't be just any forest." She turned on her heel and stalked out of the Meeting Room, a confident smile on her face. As her heels clicked on the linoleum once again, sketches and blueprints flew through her head. In her epiphany, she almost forgot the small smirk that had adorned the president's face when Tia had left the room.

Almost.

* * *

**Well hello there, everyone. This is an SYOT, and I will be accepting tributes through Pm and review. **

**The form is on my profile, and I will also post it here.**

**Name:**

**Preferred District:**

**Two Back-Up Districts:**

**Age:**

**Gender:**

**Personality: **

**Appearance (detailed)**

**History/Background (detailed):**

**Important Friends and Family (brief physical description and personality description):**

**Strengths (minimum of 3)**

**Weaknesses (minimum of 3)**

**Training Score (If you don't want to give a specific number a simple good, average, or bad would suffice. I might modify this slightly to make certain tributes seem line bigger/lesser threats):**

**Why that training score (what made them so good/bad):**

**Weapon of choice (list two):**

**Reaped/Volunteered:**

**Reaction/Reason:**

**Would your tribute want an alliance?:**

**Would they consider joining the careers?:**

**Would they run to the Forest or Cornucopia?:**

**Interview Angle:**

**Token: **

**Social Status (both with peers at school and financially at home):**

**Do they have a significant other back at home? If yes who?:**

**Open to Romance:**

**Anything Else?:**

**There will be a sponsor system I will set up around the time I post the interviews. If you would like to sponsor a tribute, shoot me a PM or put it in a review, but you cannot sponsor your own tribute(s).**

**You may submit up to three tributes, but they can't be district partners.**

**I will alert you through PM whether I will be writing about your tribute or not(or if you're on anonymous, you'll just have to wait until I post the updated list. **

**Thanks!**

**-Laney**


	2. Tribute List: Wave One

Hello loves! I have the first wave of tributes, and let me just tell you, I AM IN DESPERATE NEED OF BOYS! Send 'em in you guys!

(also, you get 500 words on the District 12 mentor, next wave you'll get District Four!)

* * *

D12 MENTOR- CADY MACEWELL

For the past eight years, Cady's life had been a succession of basic steps.

_Now it is time to eat, Cady._

_Now it is time to sleep, Cady._

_Now it is time to smile for the cameras, Cady._

After her turn in the games, nothing had been the same. She was always looking over her shoulder, never comfortable, constantly faking smiles and nodding cheerfully for cameras.

She was a big deal.

The first victor from District Twelve in 75 years.

The first victor from District Twelve since Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark.

It had been quite a spectacle.

There were clothes laid out on her bed, a black pencil skirt and green blouse. Black ballet flats sat on the floor. She didn't want to put them on. She didn't want to go to the didn't want to see two more children sent to their deaths, or if they were 'lucky', becoming her neighbor. She would sooner wish death upon someone than the life of a victor.

A rapid set of knocks rose her from her sleepwalker-like state. "Oh Caaaaaaadddddyyyyy! It's reaping day! Let me in darling, it smells awful out here!" trilled Isana, her former escort.

Cady shuffled to the set of french doors and slowly turned the knob. The hinges creaked as she opened the door. The tiniest amount of smoke curled through the opening, reminding her of her old home in the Seam. She hadn't set foot there since the day of her reaping. For some reason, the sight calmed her, and she opened the door a little more.

Peeking out, she saw Isana, poufy pink wig and all, and to her surprise, a single member of her old prep team. Dania smiled at her, silver eyeshadow sparkling and bringing out her green eyes and blue tinted skin. Cady's hand subconsciously went to her eyebrows, knowing she would be chastised for letting them grow out again. Dania grinned and shook her head, and Cady felt a smile coming on. It had been a long time since she smiled.

Isana invited herself in, and she walked around the house with a disgusted look on her face. "Cady, you've let yourself go! This place looks like it hasn't been cleaned since I came by a year ago!"

_True_ Cady thought. She ran her fingers through her curly blonde hair. It caught many snags on the way down.

"And look at you!" Isana threw her hands up in the air in defeat. Her voice grated through Cady's ears, and she couldn't help but raise her hands to her ears.

"Ow," she murmured. Isana ignored her.

"You've let your eyebrows grow back, your hair is a mess, and when was the last time showered!" she glared at Cady. "You've got your work cut out for you, Dania."

Dania laughed. She draped her arm around Cady's shoulder, which surprisingly felt almost good. "We're lucky that Cady's naturally pretty then, aren't we?"

Cady relaxed. No matter how much she detested the reaping, today's might be better than the usual.

* * *

District One Male:

District One Female: Maeve "Mac" Carlisle

District Two Male:

District Two Female:

District Three Male:

District Three Female:

District Four Male:

District Four Female: Destiny Valentina

District Five Male:

District Five Female: Cara Landville

District Six Male:

District Six Female:

District Seven Male:

District Seven Female: Tullia 'Tully' Oakes

District Eight Male:

District Eight Female:

District Nine Male:

District Nine Female:

District Ten Male:

District Ten Female: Bree Clearwater

District Eleven Male:

District Eleven Female:

District Twelve Male:

District Twelve Female:

* * *

Send in tributes you guys! Remember, you may submit **up to three, but they may not be district partners.**

Thanks!

xx Laney


	3. Tribute List: Wave Two

Celia Menthos- District Four Mentor

The salty smell of the air in the fishing district woke Celia as it drifted through her open window. She sat up and stretched, shaking her red curls out of her eyes. "Did I leave the window open?" she murmured, blinking. She was still getting used to the enhanced vision she had received at the Capitol last year when she informed her stylists that she had terrible vision. All her life, she had poked and prodded contacts into her eyes, and now she could see better than everyone in her district.

She frowned at the open window. In the distance, she could see waves crashing against the beach. She could hear them too, she could always hear them. Her house was on the beach, after all. Every night, she closed the window so she would be able to sleep, since her games she had been much more sensitive to the noises of the night. She stood up and walked to the window, running her fingers over the delicate molding. "Am I mad?" she asked aloud, to no one in particular.

"Well, talking to yourself is one of the first signs of madness," a deep, mischievous voice came from the opposite side of her room. She whipped around, her eyes wild. Her eyes locked on the intruder and relaxed. "Travis, you can't just do that!" she whispered, tears starting to pool in her green eyes.

Her fiancé crossed the room quickly and wrapped his arms around her. "Shh, shh, I'm sorry," he whispered. She fell against his chest and cried. Her fingers tangled in his curly brown hair and he kissed the top of her head. "It's okay, it's just me."

She squirmed out of his embrace and gave him a hard look. "I'm not the same girl I was when I lived in that fishman hut, Trav. You can't just sneak up on me like that!" She crossed her arms, and he laughed. She raised her eyebrows. "What?"

"You're still my adorable Celia," he said cheerfully. He went to plant a kiss on her cheek, but she ducked out, scowling.

"I have to change and get ready," she informed him.

"Ooh, interesting," he wiggled his eyebrows. He leaned in, gently pressing his lips to hers. He deepened the kiss, moving his lips down the side of her face, leaving a trail of kisses on her neck, and a noticeable hickey above her collarbones.

"Travis," she tried not to moan. "Milena's going to give me hell for that."

"Let her. She's an escort, she complains about everything," he whispered. "Now, don't you have to go get changed?"

She pushed him off, barely stifling a laugh. "Go away, perv," she smirked. She turned and began to walk to the bathroom when she felt him goose her butt. "Travis!" she shouted, indignant. He smirked and planted a light kiss on her cheek.

"I'll see you at the reaping, okay? You'll look great up on that stage."

"Better than last year," she murmured.

He took her hand and squeezed it. "Much better than last year," he promised. Giving her a cheeky smile, he traipsed to her window and, swinging one leg after the other, hopped out.

"Travis!" she called. His elfish grin peeked over the window frame. "At least close the window, it's not nice to make your fiancée question her sanity."

He winked at her, and pulled the window shut. She turned and walked towards the bathroom door, and heard the latch click shut.

"Note to self," she murmured, "tell him he can move in so he doesn't have to use the window."

* * *

idk guys.

mentor fluff.

anyway, wave two.

District One Male:

District One Female: Maeve "Mac" Carlisle, 18

District Two Male:

District Two Female:

District Three Male: Ren Partson, 18

District Three Female:

District Four Male: Russell 'Russ' Matlock, 17

District Four Female: Destiny Valentina, 17

District Five Male:

District Five Female: Cara Landville, 17

District Six Male:

District Six Female:

District Seven Male:

District Seven Female: Tullia 'Tully' Oakes, 17

District Eight Male: Cesal Nesbin, 16

District Eight Female:

District Nine Male:

District Nine Female:

District Ten Male:

District Ten Female: Bree Clearwater, 15

District Eleven Male:

District Eleven Female: Astrid Rampion, 14

District Twelve Male:

District Twelve Female:

* * *

Send in tributes you guys! Remember, you may submit **up to three, but they may not be district partners.**

**I have changed the rules, you may submit through review.**

Thanks!

xx Laney


	4. Tribute List: Wave Three

"Designs on the muttations are going along well, Ma'am," quipped the dark haired scientist at Tia's side. She was making notes on a clipboard as they walked.

Tia wrinkled her nose. "Don't call me Ma'am, I'm 26 years old. My name is Tia," she curled her fingers lightly and smirked at the terrified look on the scientists face.

"Y-yes Tia."

"Good, now show me the designs," Tia instructed. She followed the quivering lab worker over to a group of older, dignified looking men in white lab coats. They acknowledged her and led her to an open screen. The leader, Dr. Kaeson, slid his finger across the monitor and opened up a complicated blueprint.

"As you can see here, our forest-"

"Our?" Tia glared.

"Your forest," he corrected as Tia flicked her eyebrows smugly, "will be quite large. Covering over 11,000 sq. miles, it will be one of the largest arenas in the last hundred years. The forest will be inhabited by a decent number of natural wildlife: squirrels, rabbits, groosling, the works. Also, there will be four different species of muttations, each modeled off of a woodland animal."

"What do they look like? How fast can they kill?" Tia was drumming her fingers on the corner of the screen. This was dragging along, she wanted to see the beautiful demons.

"I'm getting there, Miss Cameron. As I was saying, they are modeled off of four different woodland animals. The fox," he tapped a section of code and a hologram appeared in front of them in the center of the room, separated by a thin, glass wall. It was sleek and small, with sharp teeth and deadly looking claws, "which can run at speeds up to 50 miles per hour for to ten minutes, and has claws sharp enough to slice through tendons.

"The hawk, which can carry away tributes up to 150 lbs.," he went on as a menacing hawk appeared on the hologram table.

"The bear, which is the largest mutt we have for you," he gestured to the hologram, which had changed to an eight foot bear with matted fur, which roared. Tia smiled.

"And the wolf," Tia pressed her fingers against the glass and stared as the hologram changed, "which-"

"Shut up," Tia hissed, "don't ruin it." She turned on her heel and stalked out of the room, calling back over her shoulder, "Only one wolf, and it has to be perfect."

* * *

District One Male:

District One Female: Maeve "Mac" Carlisle, 18

District Two Male:

District Two Female: Nerezza Tourmaline, 17

District Three Male: Ren Partson, 18

District Three Female:

District Four Male: Russel 'Russ' Matlock, 17

District Four Female: Destiny Valentina, 17

District Five Male: Kote Arlidon, 13

District Five Female: Cara Landville, 17

District Six Male:

District Six Female:

District Seven Male:

District Seven Female: Tullia 'Tully' Oakes

District Eight Male: Cesal Nesbin, 16

District Eight Female: Lailani 'Lela' Monroe, 16

District Nine Male:

District Nine Female:

District Ten Male:

District Ten Female: Bree Clearwater, 15

District Eleven Male: Robin Tweed, 18

District Eleven Female: Astrid Rampion, 14

District Twelve Male: Zachary Shaeffer, 14

District Twelve Female: Nevan Woodell, 13


End file.
